Existing avionics radio systems use separate radios for each function. These are often replicated to provide continuity of service on each frequency band required. This causes the size, weight and cost of such systems to be high. Furthermore each radio performs only the functions that it is specified to perform and there is little flexibility.
This situation was also true for other avionics systems. However the advantages of integrating the various avionics systems to run on a single computer were recognised and the Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) approach was invented. This enables a reduction in the amount of computer hardware and also allows more flexibility in the way that the various functions can interact with each other. It does, however, introduce issues with certification because there is more potential for functions to interact in undesirable ways with possible catastrophic consequences. This has been overcome by using high integrity real time operating systems that isolate the various functions.
A system similar to the IMA would be advantageous for the avionics radio systems. However there are differences between the requirements that make the IMA approach less practical for such systems. This invention describes an alternative distributed approach to the IMA architecture that offers many of the desirable features without the disadvantages.
In addition, different interface schemes are currently employed to access the various radio services, which may be digital or analogue services. As the internal aircraft communications infrastructure becomes more and more IP based, it is desirable to have a single method for accessing all radio services, covering both modern IP based services and legacy analogue services.
Accordingly, each type of radio is currently implemented in a disparate manner, with little integration or commonality between them. Each type of radio currently tends to use its own interface methods. For example, the interface for a VHF radio carrying analogue voice is very different to the interface for a Satcom radio carrying IP packets. This makes it difficult to achieve a seamless networking solution where information can be easily routed across the system to the different radios. Additionally, it is currently not possible to create a virtual processing facility using the different radios.
The above considerations mean that current radio systems are not well integrated and so do not benefit from common designs, common interfaces and opportunities for collaboration through a virtual processing facility.